Friday, July 13, 2012

Shipping Arms & Drugs

The top three states where ship owners based
therein are allegedly involved in arms and narcotics trafficking are Germany,
Greece and the United States. This is based on an exhaustive study conducted by
the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Accordingly, more
than 60% of ships involved in such cases are owned by companies based in the
EU, NATO or other OECD states. The report also states that the methods being
used by arms traffickers are the same ones earlier pioneered by drug
traffickers in order to avoid detection. These reportedly include hiding the
goods in sealed shipping containers that claim to carry legitimate items;
sending the goods on foreign-owned ships engaged in legitimate trade; and using
circuitous routes to make the shipments harder for surveillance operations to
track. According to the report’s co-author Hugh Griffiths, “Containerization
has revolutionized international trade, but it also provides ideal cover for
traffickers. So many shipping containers pass through the world’s ports every
day that only a fraction can be inspected. Ship owners and even custom officers
often just have to take it on trust that what’s inside the container is what it
says on the cargo documents.”The report
further adds that ship owners or even the captains may not be aware that they
are actually carrying illicit cargoes, but in cases where they appear to have
been directly involved in the trafficking attempt, the ships tend to be older
and sailing under flags of convenience.